Toward a Virtue Based Ethic for Nonessential Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The virtue of compassion allows us to empathize when pain befalls an undeserving individual. 19 An individual possessing the virtue of compassion would therefore be disinclined to take actions that would do harm to underserving individuals. Philosophers such as Broome have argued with certainty that individual GHG emissions do "expected harm” to others. 20 The possibility of their GHG emissions doing harm to another individual would be deeply disturbing to an individual with a compassionate character, so the individual would seek to avoid generating GHG emissions. This paper will deal with the virtue of responsibility primarily in the sense of social responsibility: how individuals perceive their relationships and accountability to others. An individual possessing the virtue of responsibility recognizes the ways in which they’ve benefitted from the responsibility that individuals and institutions feel towards them and that they have a moral obligation to carry that forward . 21 With respect to climate change, a responsible individual has the capacity to appropriately consider the GHG impact of their individual actions within the larger context of global decarbonization. They will prioritize supporting their peers in emissions reduction if they have the potential to affect change on a larger scale. While not an exhaustive list of the virtues that ought to influence individual behavior with respect to emission generating activities, possessing the virtues of justice, compassion, and responsibility is sufficient to cultivate a profound aversion to the emission of GHGs. Individuals who possess these virtues will be in the habit
19 John Saunders, “Compassion.” Clinical Medicine , 15(2), 2015: 121– 124. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.15-2-121. 20 John Broome, “Against Denialism,” The Monist , 102 (1), 2018: 110– 129. https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/ony024. 21 Garreth Williams, “Responsibility as a Virtue,” Ethic Theory Moral Practice 11 (4), 2008. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-008-9109-7.
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